Birdhouse In Your Soul
by Timmycheese
Summary: Title sucks I know...about Erky of course, and his problems when a unusual person comforts him, not what you think.


**BIRDHOUSE IN YOUR SOUL**

Timmycheese: One of my more serious fics

Lucius: wow

Timmycheese: Don't ask me what's with the title…I don't know

Lucius: It was originally called **"ERKS TRAGIC BIRDHOUSE INCIDENT"**

Timmycheese: but Erky-poo didn't like that name…don't know why, I liked it

Lucius: So enjoy!

Timmycheese: …can't hold onto to seriousnessness…

Lucius: …help

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fire Emblem or any characters except… (Gun click) uhhh I mean nothing….nope not a SINGLE THING…nup

Erk was much stressed that day. Not only because Serra was looking for him but in their previous battle Priscilla had been wounded and now was being taken care of by Kent, because healers obviously cannot heal themselves and Serra was no where to be found. So Erk sat moping in a forest clearing just south of their camp.

Either Priscilla getting hurt or Serra being nowhere found, both were his fault. Erk held his head in his hands and shook himself repeatedly until he started to feel dizzy. "GAH why must everything in my life be so stressed!" He thought back a year when he had to escort Serra. And then escorting Priscilla, only to be stuck in Laus then meeting Lyn and Eliwood and Hector. Meeting Serra again…oh yea and that Nergal thing. Stress stress stress, and no way to cope with it.

Erk heard a twig snap in front of him, oh no he thought, Serra must have tracked him down following his footprints, or sniffing him out. "I swear she's like a canine" Erk muttered silently. He opened one eye and looked through the gaps in his hands to see a green robe of sorts with a slit in the side and a sword sheathed at its waist. Lyn. Erk was not entirely sure he wanted to chat with her. He had too much on his mind to talk about battle plans or whatever Lyn wanted to talk about. She smiled at him. "Hello, Erk, how fare you this morning?" she said in an eerily calm voice. How can she smile like that at a time like this?

"Eh, Lady Lyndis, I am fine. How about you? You…err I mean you seem happy this morn…" Erk said, he wanted to know how she could be so cheery, HE WANTED HER SECRET! "I am fine, and you should be as happy as I am because the sky is blue the sun is shining and everyone is here together just smiling and laughing, yes this is a good day to be alive…" Lyn just stared off into space at the last comment. Erk stared at her. He wondered why she was here anyway. No one would come looking for him…excluding Serra of course, she at this very moment would probably be interrogating some of the previously happy campers into telling her if they had seen him. Erk sighed. Then remembered Lyn, "Ah, Lady Lyndis, why did you come out here…if Serra sent you, please don't tell her I'm here! I just…needed some time to think…please!" Lyn laughed; Erk looked up from his begging position and stared at Lyn.

"What is troubling you so that you do not maintain you're usually charming attitude and lower yourself to begging?" Lyn stated between chuckles. Erk looked horrified. He quickly straightened himself up and dusted himself off with his hands. "Errr, I…I…apologize if I seemed to forward with the…err" it took an awful lot of effort just to say one word… "Begging". His cheeks flushed bright red the moment he said the word. Lyn laughed again. What was wrong with her? Thought Erk, can't she see I'm already embarrassed enough without her laughing at me? "What is on your mind Erk, come sit down, you can tell me".

"Ah…fine" Erk took a long breath and started telling Lyn about his 'stress problems'. Lyn just listened patiently with the same look on her face through out the whole explanation. "As you see I'm in a bit of fix…stress! Why me?" Erk said with his hands in his head again, His purple hair falling through the gaps in his fingers. "Erk, you seem to have a lot on your plate, but I remember, back on the plains whenever I felt lonely or stressed…" Erk thought for a moment, Lyn gets stressed? Wow I guess it wasn't just Erk who had stress problems… that made him feel a little better… "I always would go down to the forest, chop up some wood and build a…" and Lyn smiled in an anxious way, "birdhouse!"

"A…a…a bird-birdhouse?" spluttered Erk. This woman was mad, thought Erk. How could building a birdhouse relieve stress? If anything it conjugate more stress, with all the planning and collecting wood and…and…and GAHHH! Lyn looked at Erk, bewildered "Are you ok Erk? Have I offended you in anyway? Did you have a tragic birdhouse incident when you were young? If so I'm ever so sorry! I DIDN'T KNOW!" Lyn said all this very fast. Erk managed to regain his composure and force a gritty smile… "No, I'm fine Milady, I was just merely wondering how building a birdhouse can relieve stress, if anything it would create more stress what with termites and planning and…" he stopped as Lyn smiled at him. "Oh that, well that's the point! You know Erk if you worry about minor details like that your whole life then you will grow old before your time, making a birdhouse…for your soul, it takes all your cares and stores them in its cosy cabin and let the birds make a nest out of it!"

'A nest of stress, if I was that bird I wouldn't be able to fit in the birdhouse with all the stress I carry' Erk thought depressed. "It really helps you should try it some time Erk..." Lyn smiled at Erk in an **and-even-if-it-doesn't-work-you-can-always-just-come-out-here-and-mope-some-more** way. Seeing Erk's expression she quickly said "I think hear Lord Eliwood calling me…well got to go! Goodbye Erk…" and with that Lyn ran off through the woods. Erk sighed…again. Well now he was back where he started, moping. "I can't just sit here and mope" thought Erk. Erk stood up and started after Lyn.

"Lyndis! Milady Lyndis! Slow down…wait!" Erk huffed between breaths; long distance running was never Erk's thing.

"Hiya!" yelled an unknown voice out of the bushes, as the thing was above Erk, his last thought before he was flattened was, 'Serra's back!' Erk closed his eyes, and was awaiting a back crushing bear hug from the pink haired devil.

"Oh, Erk sorry I thought you were an archer or something...Heh…"

Wait, that voice…Lyn? Erk opened his eyes to see Lyndis standing over him with her Mani Katti at his neck. Eeep…

"Umm Lyndis…Lyn? Can you please lower your sword…I'm rather fond of my neck…"

Erk said nervously.

"Umm.sure, sorry"

"Milady, I was, before I got bowled over, about to take you up your proposition…" Erk said calmly though he was still jittery inside. 'Lyn really IS cautious' thought Erk, 'If I had ears as good as hers, maybe Serra would never catch me and I could eat more at dinner time' Erk just remembered Lyn was talking.

"-house, I think your roof will be purple, too match the colour of your pretty purple hair…hmmm maybe, red? For the bottom part…oh this shall be so much fun!"

"I'm sure all your other…err, birdhouse-making-buddies would be much more fun than me" said Erk matter-of-factly, wait…did she just say my hair was pretty? Lyn looked away for a moment, then said "About that…no one besides you has ever made one with me…they all are…too busy, I guess…so excuse me if I'm a bit excited"

Erk smiled, "excited isn't the word I would use…well are we going to do this or what?" 'Lyn DID look excited, ecstatic is more the word I would use, like Nils on sugar, although not as frightening' Erk thought and then shuddered at the thought of Nils on sugar…scary thoughts there.

"Are you getting cold? C'mon, thought you would be tougher than that, after all the exercise you get from running away from Serra" Lyn said cheerily, nothing could break her spirit and boy did she HAVE spirit. Erk sighed and followed Lyn.

They finally reached a nice little spot behind Lyn's camping tent and started grabbing materials, wood, hammers, nails, paint, etc. Now Erk was never strong, and certainly not as strong as Lyn. He hid his blushing behind a pile of wood bits as other members of 'Eliwood's Elite' sniggered at this. But Lyn kept striding happily along, back to the clearing in the forest, as if today was sunshine happy day where nothing can go wrong.

When they reached the clearing Erk laid out all the materials carefully and sorted out all the pieces of wood according to size, shape and colour (A/N: colour? its wood…) Lyn looked at Erk than at his neatly piled piles of wood, and shook her head. "No Erk, remember this is supposed to be relaxing", she smiled and then did something quite unexpected…

She knocked over all his piles and messed them up.

Erk sat there with his jaw the length of a football field, "Wa-wa-wa why did you do that?" said Erk, more shocked than angry. "Because, if you want to get rid of stress you have to get rid of the pressure…since you are always trying to do things perfectly, the amount of pressure builds up. Therefore, you need to relax a bit and stop trying to do things perfectly" now it was Lyn's turn to make a statement matter-of-factly.

During Lyn's little…speech, Erk's shock had subsided. Erk looked down "That's…how I was brought up though…" he said with sadness filling his voice. 'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, maybe I am just meant to be stressed' even Erk's own thoughts had turned sad now.

Erk was just about to stand up and leave, when Lyn said "Oh, well we can hardly blame you for that…or Lord Pent for that matter…anyway we should get started now, who knows when Eliwood wants us to train some more, I swear if he rides around smugly on his new horse one more time…Hiya!" Lyn picked up a stick and made a stabbing action with it.

Erk couldn't help smiling, something about Lyn's air just generally made people feel that way to, be it sad, happy or angry. "Not before I do!" said Erk, still smiling, as he took a leaf and started chanting a fire spell, making it out to be like a tome. They both laughed at this.

__

'Well at least it's almost done...' thought Erk. His clothes were a complete mess. His hair too, once a nice violet, it was now more like a nice rainbow colour. His thumb was also sore. Having never used a hammer before, he had hit his thumb on more than one occasion. Despite that mentioned above, he was having a blast. Once Lyn had knocked over the paint and Erk slipped on it dropping his nearly finished house and making a hole in the front, "well at least they will have a nice door to go through now" said Lyn, smiling despite Erk's face drowning in paint and embarrassment. Wiping his face off, Erk said "I hope the birds appreciate how much I have suffered for this nice little…door", he was covered in paint, but his smile of happiness shone through.

When they were both done they stood back and admired their handiwork. Lyn's, the obviously better one, was a nice variety of greens. The roof, a nice olive, shone in the sun, and the bottom was the colour of Lyn's hair, "because I like the colour of my hair" she insisted. Erk's was a blur of purple and red, the roof was purple, because he couldn't stop Lyn painting it that, even if he had a giant elephant helping him. The bottom was red because of Erk's cape, even though his cape wasn't red anymore…more of a grungy brown colour now.

"Well, well, nicely done Erk. A bit rough around the edges, but other than that, it looks really good, I'm sure the birds will appreciate it" said Lyn and smiled at all the little birds that had come to watch over the time they spent making the mini-houses. 'Wow, its afternoon already…how much time did we use?' Erk thought as he looked at the sunset.

"Was it worth it Erk? Do you feel better?" asked Lyn, as she sat beside Erk and looked at the sunset.

"Yes… yes I do", said Erk and Lyn smiled at him

And he smiled back.

Timmycheese: AWWWWWWWWWW…ok ok maybe…little bit romance there LITTLE BIT! Only because I think if I was an FE character I would be Lyn and I love Erky! They should have an ending ;;

Erk: …with Lyn?

Timmycheese: Yes!

Erk: Ok let's leave her in her fantasy world…

Lucius: too bad you're in it

Erk: huh?

Timmycheese: ERKY!

Erk: AH! I can see the headlines now… **"Obsessed Fan Girl Attacks Helpless Innocent Cool Mage"**

Lucius: You don't have to review, but if you do, no flames


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